MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta released

The MAP Toolkit team announced that MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta is available. MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta has rich feature set to plan and prepare your environment to adopt next wave of Microsoft products and cloud services. The MAP Toolkit has readiness assessments that range from desktop to cloud — Windows 8 to Windows Azure.

The MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta program is open for general testing today and you need to register to download and try MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta in your environment as you prepare your IT infrastructure to evaluate and deploy the latest Microsoft products and cloud services.

MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here

MAP Toolkit 8.0 has completely revamped modern user interface, which provides easy and clear access to assessment scenarios supported in MAP Toolkit and assessment summaries and results. If you have used a prior version of the MAP Toolkit, you will find MAP Toolkit 8.0 much easier and simpler to navigate, find and run assessment scenarios you are interested and review the assessment results.

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Following are some of the key assessment scenarios in the MAP Toolkit 8.0:

Windows Server 2012 Readiness

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT infrastructure for deploying Windows Server 2012. This assessment includes detailed and actionable recommendations indicating which machines meet Windows Server 2012 system requirements and which may need hardware updates. A comprehensive inventory of servers, operating systems, workloads, devices, and server roles is included to help in your planning efforts.

Windows 8 Readiness Assessment

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses the readiness of your IT environment for a Windows 8 deployment. This assessment evaluates your existing hardware against the recommended system requirements for Windows 8. It provides recommendations detailing which machines meet the requirements and which may need hardware upgrades.

Office 2013 and Office 365 Readiness Assessments

MAP 8.0 Beta assesses readiness for Office 2013 and provides an in-depth assessment of client desktops for upgrading or migration. It also offers support for Office 365 features such as web apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, or full Office 365 client support.

Windows Azure Virtual Machines Migration Recommendation

MAP 8.0 Beta performs a comprehensive assessment of Windows Server and Linux machines to determine if a migration to Windows Azure Virtual Machines is possible. The toolkit then offers suggested changes to prepare the machines for migration. Key features help you reduce the operating costs of hosting on-premise servers as well as estimating the required size and monthly network and storage usage required to migrate on-premise Windows and Linux servers to Windows Azure Virtual Machines using the data from the environment.

Software usage assessment for Lync

MAP 8.0 Beta’s Lync Enterprise and Usage Tracking feature counts the number of Lync Enterprise/Plus users as well as device activities for determining the number of required client access licenses (CAL). For Lync 2010, MAP provides a server inventory and software usage by device and user for Lync Standard features. MAP’s updated Software Usage Tracking feature provides consistent software usage reports for key Microsoft products including Windows Server, SQL Server, System Center, Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and Lync.

Starting today, beta program will be open for six weeks and will end on Dec 14th, 2012. You can participate in beta by downloading and running MAP Toolkit 8.0 beta in your environment.

MAP Toolkit 8.0 Beta is available for download here

iOS 6.0.1 update available including Exchange Meetings Bug Fix

There is a update released for IOS 6,Update 6.0.1 and it includes a bug fix for an important ActiveSync issue affecting meetings. If you’ve not heard about this issue, you can read more about it here and on the Exchange Team Blog here.

The fixes included in this release include a few other fixes, but nothing mentioning the AutoDiscover issues present in iOS 6:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1606

The RTM versions of Exchange 2013, Lync 2013 and Office 2013 are now available on MSDN and Technet

Exchange 2013, Lync 2013 and Office 2013 RTM is now available for download on MSDN/Technet!!! Whoot!!!!!! Open-mouthed smile Open-mouthed smile Open-mouthed smile

MSDN Links:
Lync Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Exchange Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (Multilanguage)
Office Web Apps 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Office Professional Plus 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Office Professional Plus 2013 (x86) – DVD (English)
SharePoint Server 2013 (x64) – DVD (English)
Visio Professional 2013 (x64) – (English)
Visio Professional 2013 (x86) – (English)
Project Professional 2013 (x64) – (English)
Project Professional 2013 (x86) – (English)

IOS6 and Exchange Issue’s

If you’ve been following the Exchange and Apple-related news lately, you can’t have failed to hear about a number of bugs in the new iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch OS, iOS 6.
What’s the problem, then? Well, in iOS the two most widely reported ones relate to:

  • AutoDiscover – It doesn’t work unless the Email Address and UPN match.
  • Meeting Requests – The iOS device loses track of the organizer and replaces the device user as the organizer instead, allowing the device user to update or cancel meetings other people have asked them to attend. For more info, see KB 2768774

Another method you might want to consider is to find those iOS 6 users within your organization and tell them about the issue. It might not be practical in all situations, but with the help of the script below (which will also report future and previous versions) you’ll be able to see what the task in hand looks like.

Use the script as follows:

.\Export-iOSDeviceStatistics.ps1 -OutputCSVFile .\output.csv

You’ll see output about iOS devices shown in the PowerShell session:

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And the resulting CSV file can be opened in Microsoft Excel, or your favourite CSV editor:

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Download the script from the Technet Gallery

Special thanks to Steve Goodman

Exchange 2013 RTM Help File

Exchange

 

For those interested, e.g. you’re planning for or about to implement Exchange 2013 or just want to look up something: the Exchange 2013 RTM help file has been made available for download . Note that the help file is still incomplete, so I expect it gets updated in the upcoming period.

It comes in a Hybrid as well as an On Premise version; you can get them here

Exchange 2010 SP2 Management Tools on Windows 8 RTM

Some day’s ago I installed Windows 8 Enterprise x64 RTM on my Work pc.
So I wanted Exchange 2010 Management Tools on my PC.

I found the following topic: Exchange 2010 Management tools

This worked for me Smile

  1. Install the .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Feature
  2. Install the IIS 6 Management Console Feature
  3. Install the IIS Metabase and IIS 6 Configuration Compatibility Feature
  4. Modify the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion registry key from “6.2” to “6.1” as stated above
  5. DO NOT Close REGEDIT
  6. Create a MMC with the Exchange Tools on it and I saved it under c:\Windows 8 RTM Exchange 2010 SP2\ExchangeAdmin.msc 
  7. Create a Bat File
  8. set __COMPAT_LAYER=RUNASINVOKER
    set COMPLUS_Version=v2.0.50727
    c:\Windows 8 RTM Exchange 2010 SP2\ExchangeAdmin.msc

    Now you can Manage Exchange 2010 from a Windows 8 pc. I found no issues till now. Beware this is not supported by Microsoft!!!!!

     

Re-released Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2007 update rollups

The Exchange Team re-released the following Rollup Updates. These updates address an issue in which digital signatures on files produced and signed by Microsoft will expire prematurely, as described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2749655.

The re-released Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 includes the following additional fix:

2756987 Only one result is returned after you click “view all results” in Outlook 2010 or in Outlook 2013 in an Exchange Server 2010 environment

Announcing Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3

The Exchange Team is pleased to announce that in the first half of calendar year 2013 we will be releasing Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 3 (SP3) to our customers. With SP3, the following new features and capabilities will be included:

Coexistence with Exchange 2013: Customers that want to introduce Exchange Server 2013 into their existing Exchange 2010 infrastructure will need the coexistence changes shipping in SP3.

Support for Windows Server 2012: With Service Pack 3, you will have the ability to install and deploy Exchange Server 2010 on machines running Windows Server 2012.

Customer Requested Fixes: All fixes contained within update rollups released prior to Service Pack 3 will also be contained within SP3. Details of our regular Exchange 2010 release rhythm can be found in Exchange 2010 Servicing.

578:0x000004DC:0x0000001D Send-As permission with Outlook 2010 Exchange 2007

578:0x000004DC:0x0000001D Send-As permission with Outlook 2010 Exchange 2007
Error:

myaddress@mydomain.com
You are not allowed to send this message because you are trying to send on behalf of another sender without permission to do so. Please verify that you are sending on behalf of the correct sender, or ask your system administrator to help you get the required permission.

Diagnostic information for administrators:

Generating server:

myaddress@mydomain.com

#MSEXCH:MSExchangeIS:/DC=com/DC=mydomain:SERVERNAME[578:0x000004DC:0x0000001D] #SMTP

Solution:
1.Close Outlook

2.Delete the offline address book folders in

Windows 7: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Offline Address Books
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Offline Address Books

3.Open Outlook and let it download a new copy of the offline address book.

3.1 Send/Receive Tab
3.2. Send/Reveive Groups
3.3 Download Address Book
3.4 Choose Full Details and \Global Address List

Need To Now Before You Deploy Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4

Calendar and Tasks Retention Tag Support in Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 means you’ll need to treat this update rollup differently. If you don’t use Retention Policies or if you don’t mind Calendar and Tasks items being moved to archive or deleted automatically based on the DPT settings, you can skip the rest of this post. Else reed this Blog Post: Calendar and Tasks Retention Tag Support in Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4

However, if you are concerned about the effects of this new functionality will have on your calendar and task items, you can implement the following temporary workarounds:

If you don’t want Calendar and Tasks items to ever expire, you can disable the functionality that is included in Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4. Add the following registry key to your Mailbox servers:

  • Path: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeMailboxAssistants\Parameters
  • Name: ELCAssistantCalendarTaskRetentionEnabled
  • Type: DWORD
  • Value: 0 = Do not process Calendar and Task folders
  • Value: 1 = Process (default with RU4)

If you want Calendar and Tasks folders to expire at a different interval than DPTs, you can follow the following steps:

  1. Place all mailboxes on Retention Hold
  2. Apply Exchange 2010 SP2 RU4 to your Mailbox servers.
  3. Create RPTs for Calendar and Tasks folders with the desired retention settings.
  4. Inform users about the change.
  5. When ready, remove the retention hold from mailboxes.
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